The Mayor advised that his son had retired
from the Armed Forces some years previously and this should have
been reflected in the record of his opening remarks at the annual
Council meeting.

RESOLVED that

subjectto the amendment detailed in the
preamble above, the minutes of the meeting of Council held on
20th May 2019 be approved as a true and correct record
and signed by the Mayor.

20.

Announcements

To
consider Announcements under Procedure Rule 10:

a)
Mayor’s Announcements

b)
The Leader’s Announcements

c)
Chief Executive’s Announcements.

Minutes:

a)
The Mayor’s Announcements

The
Mayor circulated a list of the civic engagements that he and the
Deputy Mayor had attended since the previous meeting of Council
(Appendix 1). The highlight of this
period had been the garden party at Buckingham Palace, which the
Mayor had attended with his consort on 21st May
2019.

In
June 2019 the Mayor had been on holiday. He thanked the Deputy Mayor for attending a number
of civic engagements during his period of absence.

Members were advised that there would be an Armed Forces Day
service at St Stephen’s Church on 29th June 2019
starting at 10.30 am. All would be
welcome to attend. Members were also
invited to attend a Magical Midsummer Evening on 13th
July 2019. This evening would have a
country and western theme and tickets would cost £25, the
proceeds from which would go to the Mayor’s charities.

b)
The Leader’s Announcements

The
Leader advised that the review of the Local Enterprise Partnerships
(LEPs) remained ongoing. A further
update in respect of this matter would be provided in due
course.

c)
The Chief Executive’s Announcements

The Chief Executive
advised that the barrier between the Council Chamber and Committee
Room Two had broken. As a consequence
it had not been possible to provide seating for the public in
Committee Room Two for the Council meeting. Officers were anticipating that the fault would be
fixed by the next Council meeting.
Apologies were offered for any inconvenience that this might
cause.

The Leader responded
to a question that had been submitted by Mr M. Bennett in
accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9.2.

Mr Bennett asked the
following question of the Leader:

“Climate Change is the defining issue of our
time and we are at a defining moment. From shifting weather
patterns that threaten food production, to the increased risk of
flooding and localised extreme weather - the impacts of climate
change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale.

Without drastic action today, adapting to these
impacts in the future will be more difficult and costly.

More alarmingly, there is evidence that important
tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems
and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or
passed.

In October 2018, The United Nations'
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report
based on updated research around the impacts of global warming.
While previous estimates focused on estimating the damage if
average temperatures were to rise by 2°C, this report shows
that many of the adverse impacts of climate change will come at the
1.5°C mark.

With clear benefits to people and natural
ecosystems, the report found that limiting global warming to
1.5°C compared to 2°C could go hand in hand with ensuring a
more sustainable and equitable society.

Since the IPCC report was published, 85 local
authorities have passed motions declaring a Climate Emergency and
proposed steps to cut emissions. This has happened in councils
ruled by all the major parties and has
often been organised on a cross-party basis.

Is it
not time that Redditch Council acted to protect the lives and
property of Redditch residents by declaring a Climate Emergency and
committing to a series of concrete measures designed to reduce
carbon emissions to net zero as soon as possible?”

The
Leader responded as follows:

“We absolutely agree with Mr Bennett that the
IPCC state with high confidence that a manmade carbon dioxide
increase is causing rising global temperatures, the results of
which we are starting to witness.

In light of this, it is entirely appropriate for
Redditch Borough Council to declare a Climate Emergency and commit
to working towards the IPCC report global requirements.

The IPCC report recognises however, that this is a
significant challenge, which requires action and co-operation at
every level. Redditch Borough Council
cannot rise to the challenge alone.

The more that Redditch Borough Council can
achieve prior to 2030, the lower the
risk of being locked into
carbon-emitting infrastructure, having assets which become useless
or devalued and having less options, with higher costs.

I have therefore asked officers to set out a
Sustainability Action Plan for the council showing short medium and
long-term measures to reduce emissions from our own operations,
estate and contracts. Where we have no direct control, we will look
at how we can work with residents and businesses through our
services to help them to reduce their emissions.

Members noted that the
introduction of civil penalty notices would provide the Council
with an opportunity to address problems with rogue landlords,
without having to go through a lengthy legal process. The civil penalty notices would only be used as a
last resort in cases where landlords were not compliant with
standard requirements. There was the
potential for this to have a beneficial impact on the quality of
housing provided to residents living in the private rented sector
in the Borough. The maximum penalty
that would need to be paid by a landlord would be
£30,000.

High Quality Design
– Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

The Mayor advised that
he had agreed that a limited number of copies of the Additional
Papers Pack 1, which contained the full report for this item,
should be printed to keep the amount of paperwork generated for the
item to a minimum. The report had
already been considered by Members at meetings of the Planning
Advisory Panel (PAP) and Executive Committee and copies had been
available in the political party group rooms and could be accessed
electronically on the Council’s website and the Redditch
modern.gov app.

The report added to
existing planning policies and would help to provide clearer
direction to housing developers in respect of the Council’s
design requirements for planning applications.

Upper Norgrove Site, Webheath
– Development of Land

Members noted that
during the Executive Committee an amendment had been proposed to
one of the resolutions which would have specified a need to
consider social housing for development on the site. This amendment had been defeated but the type of
housing at that location would be considered in line with the
Council’s planning policies should a planning application for
the site be submitted at a later date.

RESOLVED that

theminutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held
on 11th June 2019 be received and all recommendations
adopted.

To note appointments
to a number of outside bodies, which are shared appointments with
Bromsgrove District Council and Wyre Forest District Council for
north Worcestershire.

Minutes:

Members noted amendments to the appointments
to the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP (GBSLEP), the GBSLEP
European Structural and Investment Fund Strategy Committee (ESIF),
the Worcestershire LEP Board, the Worcestershire LEP ESIF
Committee, the Worcestershire Local Transport Board and the
Worcestershire Health and Well-Being Board. These appointments on behalf of north
Worcestershire were shared with Bromsgrove District Council and
Wyre Forest District Council.

RESOLVED that

1)the appointment of Councillor Karen May, Bromsgrove
District Councillor, as lead representative on the GBSLEP Board to
replace Councillor David Thain be noted;

6)the appointment of Councillor Adam Kent, Bromsgrove
District Councillor, and Councillor Fran Oborski to the Worcestershire Local Transport
Board, to replace Councillor Julian Grubb, be noted;

7)the appointment of Councillor Shirley Webb, Bromsgrove
District Councillor, as the lead representative on the
Worcestershire Health and Well-Being Board be noted; and

8)theappointment of Councillor Julian Grubb as a substitute on the
Worcestershire Health and Well-Being Board be noted.

26.

Urgent Business - Record of Decisions

To
note any decisions taken in accordance with the Council’s
Urgency Procedure Rules (Part 6, Paragraph 5 and/or Part 7,
Paragraph 15 of the Constitution), as specified.

(None to date).

Minutes:

There were no urgent decisions to note at this
meeting.

27.

Urgent Business - general (if any)

To
consider any additional items exceptionally agreed by the Mayor as
Urgent Business in accordance with the powers vested in him by
virtue of Section 100(B)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act
1972.

(This power should be exercised only in cases where there are
genuinely special circumstances which require consideration of an
item which has not previously been published on the Order of
Business for the meeting.)

Minutes:

There was no general urgent business for
consideration on this occasion.